Day Three

Today I chose a Chinaberry carving we have to use as the subject of today's ink sketch.

FYI:  Chinaberry parasite wood carvings come from a parasitic plant, a mushroom-like growth that imbeds itself into the bark of a Chinaberry tree and gets its nourishment from the tree's sap.  These parasite growths are so hard and dense that they don't decay when the tree is dead and rots away, leaving these parasite growths to be picked up and carved into beautiful objects by talented artists.

Day Three   12/13/2011

I now have Day Three completed ... only 72 sketches more to do!  I hope I can, I hope I can, I hope I can ....

Happy Day!
Karen Anne

Brenda Swenson's "75 Day Sketch Challenge" 

Great times camping result in latest drawing!

This latest drawing is titled "Rosa's Flounder". We were down at the Pacific Coast in a campsite on Whalen Island the past few days and had great weather and a wonderful time. On Monday morning the camp host, Rosa, came by and showed me her catch of the day, a beautiful flounder, which inspired this drawing. The best part, however, was when she offered to filet the fish and give it to us for dinner! Cooked up in butter with pepper, season salt and garlic powder it proved to be the best tasting fish I have ever eaten! I remarked that it tasted a bit like delicate shrimp and Rosa said it was probably because flounder feed on sand shrimp. Guess I'll have to get a fishing license for my next trip to Whalen Island!

"Rosa's Flounder" 

 We spent time in the Trask River Campground in Tillamook County on Friday and Saturday and actually caught three crawdads!  We gave them back to the river the next day because three wasn't enough to cook up, boy were they happy to get back into the river!  Here are a few photos from the Trask River Campsite ....

After two days at Trask River we headed on over to Whalen Island, another Tillamook County Campground, where I set up my portable art studio and began work on "Rosa's Flounder".  Here are some of those photos ...

Another great discovery was an easy way to get hot water for washing dishes!  I took along an old roaster, filled it with water and dish soap, heated it up on the campstove and had hot water for washing!  Yes!  An added benefit is the lid keeps out bugs and pine needles.  Then I use a 5 gallon water dispenser to rinse the dishes, really makes cleaning up a breeze!

And, if you ever want the BEST camp stove that heats up water in a jiffy ... get yourself a Stansport!  It is almost as good as my domesticated restaurant gas stove at home!

We have found another Tillamook County camp ground we want to check out, it is called Kilchis River Campground.  If the weather holds up, maybe we can get over there sometime in early September, who knows, maybe we'll catch some crawdads over there???
Would be nice to catch enough for a small spiced crawdad feast with melted garlic butter!

Happy camping!
Karen Anne